The latest plan to salvage the baseball season calls for major league teams to begin the regular season in late June and eventually play in their home parks without fans under a three 10-team division format, according to a USA TODAY report.
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For the long-delayed 2020 season, Major League Baseball is considering playing at least a 100-game schedule where three divisions are set up geographically without American and National League designations.
For example, here's the Red Sox 10-team division:
EAST
Boston Red Sox
Baltimore Orioles
Miami Marlins
New York Yankees
New York Mets
Philadelphia Phillies
Pittsburgh Pirates
Tampa Bay Rays
Toronto Blue Jays
Washington Nationals
The other divisions:
Sports
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CENTRAL
Atlanta Braves
Chicago Cubs
Chicago White Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Cleveland Indians
Detroit Tigers
Kansas City Royals
Milwaukee Brewers
St. Louis Cardinals
Minnesota Twins
WEST
Arizona Diamondbacks
Colorado Rockies
Houston Astros
Los Angeles Angels
Los Angeles Dodgers
Oakland Athletics
San Francisco Giants
San Diego Padres
Seattle Mariners
Texas Rangers
USA TODAY's Bob Nightengale reports that the plan is gaining support among owners and executives. It is pending approval of medical experts and would need COVID-19 testing readily available to the public. Players would not have to be quarantined and could remain with their families. The realignment would greatly reduce travel.
Earlier this month, MLB had been considering having teams play their regular season at the spring training sites in Florida and Arizona and aligning the teams geographically by those sites. Under this plan, it is still uncertain whether teams would have to begin the regular season at the spring training sites before returning to their home stadiums.
This latest proposal calls for players to be given a week to return to training sites then have 18-21 days to get ready to start the regular season. There is also hope that several thousand fans could return to ballparks late in the regular season or in the playoffs.
"This is going to be a season like we've never seen," one of the baseball executives told Nightengale. "But that's fine. It's at least a season.''
